MAM
GolinOpinion appoints Asheesh Malhotra as ED
MUMBAI: Asheesh Malhotra has parted ways with advertising to pursue a career shift. He leaves his role as president at Bates CHI & Partners to join GolinOpinion, the PR division of PointNine Lintas, as the executive director. This marks a significant shift for Malhotra, who’s spent his entire career in creative agencies, as he ventures into the landscape of PR. At GolinOpinion, he will lead the strategic planning function and oversee the agency’s social media centre-of-excellence, the Bridge.
PointNine Lintas CEO Vikas Mehta said: “Convergence of marketing disciplines is here to stay. An omni-channel marketing plan today is incomplete without elements like advocacy and conversations. To stay relevant, PR firms need brand practitioners in addition to PR experts. Asheesh has built blue-chip brands while working with India’s two most respected agencies, Lowe Lintas and Ogilvy. We’re delighted to have him back in the Lintas family and look forward to his contribution in further strengthening PointNine Lintas’ PR service-stack.”
Asheesh joins GolinOpinion from the Ogilvy group where he was the president, Bates CHI&Partners heading its Mumbai and Delhi offices. He was earlier a unit head looking after a large Unilever portfolio as well heading a global hub for Castrol and BP at Ogilvy. A new business junkie, he was also leading the growth agenda for Bates. Prior to that, he spent fruitful eight years in the Mumbai office of Lowe Lintas, leading the ICICI Prudential and J&J businesses.
As the executive director, Malhotra will report to Ameer Ismail – GoinOpinion president & PointNine Lintas chief growth officer. Ismail said, “A senior professional, strategist and well-respected leader who has worn many hats in advertising is going to lead this audacious vision.”
Malhotra said, “Credibility of brands, people and institutions is being challenged every day. In this thin-skinned world, PR holds a huge responsibility of being both, a shield and the statesman that shapes conversations, communities and culture.”
Responsible for a national mandate, Malhotra has joined GolinOpinion with immediate effect and will be based out of Mumbai.
MAM
JioStar unveils ‘The Winning Edge’ playbook for live cricket advertisers
Data-led guide shows multi-screen, sponsorship strategies drive higher impact
MUMBAI: JioStar has launched ‘The Winning Edge’, a data-backed advertising playbook aimed at helping brands maximise impact on live cricket, positioning the sport as one of the most powerful marketing platforms in India.
Built using billions of impression-level data points across marquee cricket properties and validated through studies by Kantar, the playbook offers practical insights into how brands can drive measurable outcomes such as awareness, recall and purchase intent.
The findings make a strong case for live cricket as a growth engine for both new and established brands. According to the report, new advertisers on live cricket campaigns saw up to 6.9 times higher brand awareness and up to 10.8 times higher purchase intent compared to industry benchmarks. Established brands also recorded gains, with up to four times higher awareness and nearly five times higher purchase intent.
Speaking about the initiative, JioStar head of sales sports Anup Govindan said, “The Winning Edge, developed in partnership with Kantar, is built on rigorous, data-backed analysis of how real brands have performed on our platform across categories, objectives, budgets, formats and tournament phases. The study reaffirms that when it comes to driving real outcomes such as awareness, consideration and purchase intent, nothing matches the intensity, scale and impact of live cricket. The depth of attention and emotional engagement during live moments creates a multiplier effect that non-live environments simply cannot replicate.”
One of the standout insights is the advantage of multi-screen strategies. Campaigns that ran simultaneously across linear TV, connected TV and mobile delivered up to seven times higher purchase intent than single-platform campaigns, with minimal audience overlap ensuring incremental reach.
The playbook also highlights the impact of combining formats. Brands using both video and display formats saw up to 7.4 times higher brand awareness compared to those relying on video alone.
Sponsorships emerged as another key lever. Brands with formal sponsorship deals recorded up to nine times higher purchase intent and up to eight times higher ad awareness than those opting only for standard inventory buys. Adding pre and post live studio programming further boosted aided awareness by up to 2.1 times.
Crucially, the report identifies high-impact in-match moments such as Super 4s, Super 6s, DRS and fall of wickets as prime opportunities for brands. Campaigns aligned with these moments delivered uplifts of up to 10 times in awareness and up to seven times in recall, reinforcing the value of contextual advertising.
Echoing these findings, Kantar managing director and chief client & solutions officer Soumya Mohanty said, “Numerous Kantar Brand Lift Studies have demonstrated the incremental impact of live cricket advertising, with results consistently ranking at the top end of Kantar’s Brand Lift database. This playbook distils those insights into actionable media planning and creative recommendations to help advertisers drive stronger outcomes in live cricket environments.”
With live cricket continuing to draw massive, highly engaged audiences, JioStar is positioning ‘The Winning Edge’ as a blueprint for brands looking to move beyond visibility and towards measurable impact.
As the competition for consumer attention intensifies, the message is clear. In the world of sports marketing, playing smart may matter just as much as showing up.
